Tamora Pierce

[mistrali]

I'm familiar with the name but I haven't read anything by her. Where would you suggest would be a good place to start with her works?

She has two universes, Emelan and Tortall.

1) Tortall is high fantasy. Recommended reading order (in order of series): Song of the Lioness, The Immortals Quartet, Protector of the Small, Beka Cooper series, Tortall and Other Lands, Tempests and Slaughter (also a prequel to TIQ). I don't recommend you read Trickster, only because I had a lot of issues with suspending my disbelief. Alternatively, you can start with Beka Cooper (which is a prequel). There are small callbacks/crossovers within each series, but no huge spoilers, except for T&OL ('Nawat' ) which has spoilers for Trickster. I haven't read T&S yet, so I have no idea how it is.

The most 'Hobb-esque' of these is probably TIQ, which also involves a protagonist who can talk to animals. All of them also have romance in them. SotL also has some discussion of mysterious cities and so forth.

2) Emelan is about four kids from very different backgrounds who find themselves in a magic school, and have to learn to work together. It's nothing like Harry Potter, and in fact I consider it far better.  Reading order (strongly recommended, as the series is sequential): CoM quartet, Circle Opens quartet and Will of the Empress. Don't bother with Battle Magic or Melting Stones.

This series is 'low' fantasy and there's no romance, except for very mild flirting and the like in WotE.